Iran Human Rights Organization: 517 Executions in Iran in 2017

The Iran Human Rights Organization, based in Norway, reported in its annual report published on Monday, March 12, that 517 death sentences were carried out in the past year. According to the report, "only 21 percent of these executions were announced by official sources." This report was presented and discussed at the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report states that in 2017, 45 percent of the executions were related to drug offenses, 31 executions were carried out in public, and five juvenile offenders were executed. The Iran Human Rights Organization also announced that about half of these death sentences were issued by revolutionary courts. Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, the head of the Iran Human Rights Organization, told Radio Farda: "Overall, the number of executions in 2017 did not differ significantly from the previous year, and while the number of executions related to drug offenses decreased last year, there was a 70 percent increase in the number of executions related to murder cases."